Shortest monotone descent path problem in polyhedral terrain

Abstract: Given a polyhedral terrain with n vertices, the shortest monotone descent path problem deals with finding the shortest path between a pair of points, called source (s) and destination (t) such that the path is constrained to lie on the surface of the terrain, and for every pair of points and on the path, if then , where denotes the distance of p from s along the aforesaid path. This is posed as an open problem by Berg and Kreveld [M. de Berg, M. van Kreveld, Trekking in the Alps without freezing or getting tired, Algorithmica 18 (1997) 306–323]. We show that for some restricted classes of polyhedral terrain, the optimal path can be identified in polynomial time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]